Hartwell High series
by Emma Gene Louise
Summary: The teens are finally back home and starting back to high school, but are they going to be able to function off of the island?
1. Chapter 1

Hartwell High Series

**Nathan POV**  
Shirt, Socks, Shoes, backpack. Check. This was weird. Just a week ago we were surviving on fruit and fish, and sleeping on sandy beaches. Last night, I was up late watching basketball with my dad, and eating fried food. And today...it's my first day back to school. Yup, things sure have changed. I laid down on my bed, staring up at my ceiling. Basketball posters covered every inch of my wall, along with plaques of achievement for my grades. However, ever since I got back, the only picture that has gotten any attention from me is the one of Daley I put up when I got home. Now that we were off the island...maybe this relationship thing could work...after all, I like her, she likes me...AND SHE KISSED ME!

"Nathaniel, you are going to be late for school!" A voice called from down the hallway, breaking me out of my day dream. I grabbed my backpack and hurried down the hallway, plastered with family photos.

"No, he has school today. There will be no interview thank you," My mother said patiently, clicking off the phone and hammering it down on the counter.

"That's the fifth call today," She said. "If I get any more..." Her voice trailed off as she noticed I was standing in the doorway. "Oh, sorry. You ready to go?"

"Yeah...and I'm really sorry about all the calls," I said quietly, turning the front door and stepping out into the sunlight. Sunlight, the one thing that still reminded us of the island. The bright rays illuminated my dark skin, at least I had something to show off. I slid into the front seat of my mothers accura, and felt the leather seats with my callused hands. A month ago I wouldn't have thought twice about this, but now it was a luxury. Chairs, air conditioning, you don't realize what you have unless it's gone.

"Nathan," I blinked, realizing that we were halfway to school. " The therapist told you to focus on the now, and not the past..." She blinked back tears. I knew that she was worried about me...otherwise why would I be seeing a shrink. But she's right...i need to adjust. The car eventually pulled up in front of the familiar building. I had walked by a few times, once with everybody, and once by myself. Students poured through the freshly cut lawn and into the front doors. "You don't need to go in if you're not ready, we can try again tomorrow." I knew she just wanted me to be happy, but I needed to be pushed out of the nest.

"I'll see you at three, mom." She kissed my head, and then watched as I got out of the car, tears forming in her eyes. I stepped out, and walked all the way to the front steps, keeping my head down to avoid confrontation.

"Nathan!" Oh come on...already? I picked up my head to see Eric running towards me. "You ready to be the most popular kids in school?" He said, adjusting his hat and pushing his sunglasses down on his face, "Because I know I am." I rolled my eyes and pushed Eric, silently glad I didn't have to do this alone. We started to walk in, and although I bet I looked confident, I was scared out of my mind on the inside. Immediately inside we saw a huge mob of kids. One kid, Cole (he was on the basketball team,) turned around and saw us.

"Nathan!" He rushed over and we hugged each other. "Man, I thought you were dead." The others turned around to see me and Eric, and the mob moved, releasing a very pale Melissa and Taylor.

"I gotta go...class and all," I pushed through the crowds of people patting me on the back.

"Thanks to me, we're all here," I heard Eric boasting behind me. What happened to the helpful Eric after we got off the island? I finally managed to get over to Taylor and Melissa.

"I knew it was going to be bad, but this is ridiculous!" Taylor cried, fixing her hair, which was pushed into a messy ponytail instead of straightened and highlighted like it usually was. I wondered if it was a side effect of being on the island."But it looks like Eric is enjoying all of the attention," The group eventually dispersed and Eric sauntered over.

"Now now, there is enough Eric to go around," He laughed, taking off his sunglasses. Taylor frowned and without a word walked off down the hallway, angry about something. "What's her problem?"

**Taylor POV**

holding onto my backpack straps I held back my frustration. Did Eric not change at all? He needs to wake up and realize that life isn't all about teasing. Sure, I'm still not the smartest person, but ever since I've gotten back, I've realized that life isn't all about makeup and looking pretty. I'm ready to start anew. Walking into my first period class, chemistry I was ready to be alone, but I saw a familiar face in the corner of the room.

"Mind if I sit here?" the blonde turned around, eyes turning wide.

"Taylor!" she screamed, causing the entire room to turn around. She enveloped me in a hug. "God I thought you were gone forever. Her name was Anna, my best friend, the girl who went to the mall with me every day after school. The girls who spent hours of time with, talking about absolutely nothing.

"God I haven't stopped thinking about you, and when I heard you were back I called you, but your cell was off!" She smiled, finally letting me go. Cellphones, yeah...i hadn't even remembered to charge mine when I got home.

"I thought of you every day too!" Lies. I had actually completely forgotten about her until now. "I've been sort of busy since I got back, you know, the whole family thing." lying again, truth is I had been staring at the ceiling, trying to cope back to civilized life. "You wanna go to the Java later?" The java was the local coffee shop, or where Anna and I spent most of our time before... my therapist told me to try and hang out with some old friends, so I figure the coffee shop was the best idea.

"Sure! Now let me fill you in on the drama that you've missed!" Drama. The one thing I was entirely sick of after getting off the island. Before, Drama was my source of entertainment, somebody elses suffering was the best part of my day. But then being a part of it, and seeing how one hurt relationship can hurt everybody else. "Hello," Anna waved her hand in front of my face, "Are you in there?" I had completely zoned out! 

"Sorry, can you tell me what I've missed so far this chapter?" I tried changing the subject off of drama.

"You want to pay attention? I'm sure you could flirt your way into Jacob's heart to get the answers. Jacob was the nerdiest kid in our class, and also the most gullible. One flip of the hair got me a way to pass the class.

"I don't know, I'm going to need to learn it eventually right?" Anna looked at me sympathetically.

"Poor thing, those nerds have gotten you way too messed up, a few low fat lates and a night of the jersy shore should put you back to your old ways," She laughed melodically, but I didn't find it funny. "Don't call them nerds..." I said angrily. She backed away slightly, rolling her eyes.

"Jeez, ok." She brushed her bleached hair behind her ear and doodled hearts on her paper. Suddenly, I questioned why we had ever gotten along. She was shallow, stupid, and didn't care about anything...just like me...


	2. Chapter 2

Melissa tucked her hair behind her ears nervously, pulling her arms tighter to her chest. Overstimulation, that's what the therapist blamed her anxiety on. People were bustling about down the hallway, few taking the time to notice her, thankfully. She prayed that if she stayed close enough to the lockers no one would—

She was interrupted mid thought to hands clasping her shoulders.

"Oh Melissa I've never been happier to see you." Melissa lifted her head nervously to see who was talking to her and immediately felt the breath fill her lungs with relief. Taylor.

"Likewise," She gasped. "Have you—"

"It's horrible!" Taylor said, cutting her off. "I just want to go to class, but people keep trying to talk to me! The worst part is, most of them just want to be in the TV commercials as 'Taylor's BFF'. It's disgusting really, I mean—oh no." Melissa frowned at Taylors agonized expression.

"What?"

"Look" She said, pointing behind her. Turning around quickly she saw a huge crowd of people moving quickly towards them.

"Taylor! Melissa! Over here! Remember us?" The crowd chanted, encircling the girls. Taylor waved her hands around madly, looking for a way out and Melissa felt her stomach churning. She prayed she wouldn't throw up over everyone, but there were no guarantees. By some wonderful change in fate, the group turned around and ran the other direction. Melissa breathed another painful sigh of relief and collapsed against the lockers. The group had seen Nathan and Eric walk in, but Eric was the only one who wanted anything to do with them. Melissa watched as Nathan ejected himself from the group and walked over to Melissa and Taylor.

Once Taylor stormed off, angry at Eric for being so egotistical Melissa figured, Nathan asked Melissa if she wanted to walk to class with him. Eagerly agreeing they walked in silence past a few classrooms, a few students lingering in the doorways, but no one entering. It was "so uncool" to sit in class more than five minutes before the bell rang.

"Hey, Melissa. Are you okay?" Nathan asked looking down at his friend. Melissa tried to shake the panicked expression from her face.

"Yeah, totally. It's just crazy being back here after…" She trailed. Mentioning the phrase "Plane Crash" was too much for her to handle, and it seemed to be that way for everyone. "Have you talked to Daley?" She asked, trying to change the subject, causing Nathan to groan.

"It's just so frustrating!" Bingo, she thought. "She said she would call me when she got settled at home, or at least, that's what I think the agreement was. We didn't really say anything, but the ball is in her court, right? I mean, she kissed ME!" Nathan rambled on about his love problems, and Melissa couldn't help but laugh.

"What!" He asked, exasperated.

"Do you have any idea what you sound like right now?" She watched as Nathan's frown turned into a smile, causing the two to laugh.

"Okay, I'll talk to you later." Nathan said, giving Melissa a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder. She savored the feeling of comfort for a moment before retiring into the classroom. The posters and students were so familiar, yet so foreign at the same time. Remembering her old seat she sat down quietly, pretending the wide eyes from other students weren't focused on her. Thankfully, the teacher walked in and the students averted their eyes.

"OH yes, the new student," Melissa wanted to see who the new student was, but she knew that if she looked up she would meet eyes with someone and—

"Hey." Recognizing the voice her eyes shot up. The tall, medium built boy that stood next to her flashed a slight smile.

"Jackson." His name echoed in her head, causing everything to slow down and stop. They were the only two in the room. Shaking her head slightly she was brought back into reality. "You're here! Why?" Her question came out rushed, causing Jackson to laugh quietly.

"They pulled me out of my classes because they figured I'd be back in juvi, but they decided that a plane crash was good enough punishment. Nobody was pressing charges anyway." He stopped, giving a grim smile. "It's more like they didn't want the bad press of putting me away."

The two looked at each other, tension filling the air from Jackson's comment, but luckily a bust of students came through the door, the bell breaking the silence like a knife.

"Can I?" Jackson began to ask before a student flew into the seat next to Melissa, marking his territory with a glare. "Nevermind," He sighed, slouching into a table next to hers. A girl sat down in the chair next to him and the two started a conversation. Melissa tried to listen in, but the guy sitting next was making that difficult.

"So I was thinking if you wanted someone to help you catch up on homework," He said, tilting his head and smiling genuinely, Brad, Melisa thought his name was. She admitted that he wasn't hard to look at, but he wasn't her type.

"Sure." She said, opening up the heavy calculus book to the page on the board.

Class ended quickly, and with no added interruptions, and Melissa packed up her bag, hoping she could talk Jackson into eating lunch with them. Maybe then she could walk with him to his next class and they could talk about—Melissa suddenly became painfully aware that the boy next to her was talking to her.

"I'm sorry, what?" She said timidly.

"Saturday, I could show you what we've learned in the past month," He smiled and Melissa smiled back politely. She had no intention of actually studying with him.

"I'm not sure yet, I mean—"

"Ah, okay I see," The boy said, winking. At this point, most of the class had left except Jackson and the girl he was sitting next to. "We'll spend some time 'not studying' and we'll see what happens." He winked, taking a step closer to her, and she took a hesitant step back, feeling Jackson's back almost pressed up against hers, the fabric of his T-shirt grazing her jacket.

"Uh, That's not really what-" Melissa stammered, her voice hitching. She didn't like how close he was getting to her, she was feeling really uncomfortable.

"Come on, I'll show you a good time," He smiled and reached to put his hand on her butt, but suddenly his hand stopped and the boy's eyes widened in horror. She realized that Jackson had turned around, his chest centimeters from her back, and he was squeezing the boys wrist for all it was worth.

"Don't you dare touch her, it'll just give me a reason to break this next time." Jackson released the boys wrist, causing him to cower in the corner, his sore wrist being held close to his chest.

"What the hell man, she was coming on to me!" Jackson placed his hand protectively on Melissa's shaking shoulder and led her out of the classroom, leaving the boy and the girl he was sitting next to speechless. Once they were far enough away from the classroom he stopped and pulled her to the side of the crowd moving to the lunchroom. Crouching down a bit so he was eye-level he tried to meet Melissa's fleeting eyes.

"Did he hurt you?" Melissa shook her head quickly, her face flushing and her eyes still not meeting his. She was feeling the panic of the situation in the classroom, and the adrenaline from the romantic gesture between the two of them flood through her veins. She leaned against the locker for support, still shaking. "Are you sure you're okay?" Melissa was silent for a moment, enjoying knowing that the two were so close. Slowly, her heart rate came down and she was able to look up at him, his eyes were filled with worry that she wasn't familiar with.

"Yeah, I'm okay." Jackson wasn't convinced, but he nodded. The hallway was almost empty at this point, a few other students trailing behind the pack. "Do you wanna go to lunch? I know we're trying to sit together to avoid everyone." Jackson looked relieved that I was talking again, but quickly went back to his colder self.

"Sure." And the two walked down the hallway together in silence, but Melissa didn't care. She was with Jackson, and just being around him made everything easier to deal with.


End file.
